Archaeology

Palazzo

I received a BS in biology with minors in classical archaeology and German from the University of Michigan (2010). In 2006 I became involved in the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia (see link below) as a member of the environmental team collecting, processing, and analyzing faunal material from the site. As of 2012 I am responsible for leading the environmental team in the field. I have also excavated on the island of Sardinia as part of Progetto Pran’e Siddi and in Tuscany at the Roman villa of Poggio del Molino.

McCarty

My dissertation research focuses on inter-household social organization at the Kazane Höyük excavations, directed by Prof. Patricia Wattenmaker. Outside modern Sanliurfa, Turkey, Kazane is home to one of the world's largest known settlements belonging to the Halaf cultural horizon (5200-4500 BCE uncalibrated, 5900-5350 cal. B.C.E.). The Halaf flourished in Southeastern Turkey, Northeastern Syria and Northern Iraq during the transitional Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic periods.

Hart

My fascination with ancient Egypt eventually lead me to focus on the Predynastic period. How did people go from being herders and farmers to having Pharaohs and building pyramids in such a relatively short period of time? Looking beyond the grand temples and tombs of Ancient Egypt, I became especially interested in settlement sites. I wanted to know about ordinary people and what the sites where they lived can tell us about their lives. I took up the study of stone tools, such a durable and widely used medium, as a good way to get at these questions.

Brant

I hold a BA degree in anthropology from UCLA (2006), and a MA from Cal State University, Northridge (2009). My MA research was conducted in Tarapaca Valley, Northern Chile where I examined rock art sites as a means for understanding the economic and ideological reorganization that followed Tiwanaku's collapse. Shifting my regional focus slightly, my doctoral research will focus on Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000-1450) Collao ritual architecture in the Titicaca Basin of southern Peru.

Arendt

My dissertation project is on the archaeological study of cultural interactions of German Moravian missionaries and Inuit peoples in the 18th and 19th centuries, in Labrador, Canada.

I investigate how material remains within households changed or remained the same after the arrival of the missionaries, and whether this also serves as an indication for ideological changes. I also plan to incorporate a community archaeology program that will provide a cultural experience for Inuit high school students.

Neiman

Most

My primary research interests are concerned with the study of change over time in prehistoric economic and settlement systems. I am particularly concerned with the study of spatial and technological organization of prehistoric foraging societies, the impact of the adoption of agricultural strategies by foraging societies, and the role of hunting in emergent complex societies. My avenue into the study of these processes has been the systematic study of stone tool procurement, production, and use.

LaViolette

I am an archaeologist with active research in Africa and a particular interest in medium-range and large-scale societies over the last two millennia. My earliest research was in West Africa where I conducted an ethnoarchaeological study of craft production in Jenne, Mali with implications for early urbanism in the Inland Niger Delta. Since 1987 I have been working on the East African coast, conducting survey and excavation in several regions on the mainland and on Pemba Island, Tanzania, on sites at the intersection of archaeology, ethnology, and history.

Hantman

My research in archaeology is concerned with the writing of anthropological histories of Native American societies. I focus on the writing of long-term regional histories, with a particular interest in the intersection of indigenous worldviews and the events of the early colonial era. I am equally concerned with changing relations within and between indigenous peoples at this time.